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The 49ers defeated the Bengals 13-8. Here’s how it played out on our live game blog, with the most recent drive on top.

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Kendall Hunter busts through the Bengals.

49ers drive: The 49ers are going to punt. Obviously, it will be a full punt block here. Lee is going take the safety. Two seconds left and the 49ers will free kick. The Bengals’ attempt to lateral their way to a touchdown fails miserably. Game over.

49ers drive: Harbaugh just told either Crabtree or the guy he was talking to on the headset to “Shut up” during the time out. Kendall Hunter in the game. Gore only got two carries after his fumble.

Bengals drive cont: Pick by Reggie Smith, but did he secure it. He did, although it did touch the ground. Terrific catch. They never seem to give the player the catch on these plays. Ruling stands, refs get it right. The 49ers might get a win on the road.

Bengals drive: Clements is probable to return with a knee injury. Why did Brandon Tate bring the ball out 9 yards back. Two pass plays and the Bengals are at the 49ers 43.

Akers Good! Wow, that ball curved right in and probably would have good from 63. 53-yarder by the way. Can the 49ers stop Dalton. Whitner, by the way, hasn’t played since leaving in the first quarter.

49ers drive: Hunter in, and Adam Snyder in. Way too conservative on offense with heavy run formation and no passing to try and salt the game away. Nate Clements is hurt and on 4th down, Akers is out to try a 52-yarder presumably.

Bengals drive: Rogers pick! Great trail technique for the score. That’s great film study by Rogers, he knew exactly where he needed to be.

49ers drive: Justin Peelle, Delanie Walker and Vernon Davis all with excellent blocks on Hunter’s 7-yard run. Hunter gives the 49ers the ability to run insides and out. No negative plays and looked what happened. 49ers lead 10-6.

Bengals drive: Terrific series by the defense to hold the Bengals to 3. Spencer had perfect position on the third-down fade route. Can the 49ers somehow eliminate the mistakes on offense?

49ers drive: Gore fumbled and the Bengals recover. Gore is losing his concentration with this fumble and his miss on pass protection.Holding call makes the 49ers start at their 10.

Bengals drive: Ray McDonald is quietly having a good game. Whoever makes a big play in this game will probably win it. Watch out for A.J. Green, who is probably the most likely to make a big one. Bengals have to watch for Davis and Crabtree.

49ers looked ragged and disappointed. They are not playing with any enthusiasm on offense. They said on radio, that the 49ers faced a third and longer than 10 for the 13th time.

49ers drive: Bengals are blitzing similarly to the way Houston brought pressure in the preseason. They are bringing six often and the 49ers are having trouble adjusting. Rare to see Frank Gore not pick up his man.

Bengals drive: Three and out.

49er drive cont: 49ers can’t punch it in. It’s going to be slog offensively all day. 49ers do get a field goal to tie. Crabtree stepping 0ut of bounds before catching a TD pass hurt.

49ers drive: Great audible by Alex Smith splitting Davis out wide, seeing the man coverage by S Chris Crocker and then throwing a perfect pass. Smith was hit by two Bengals after he released the pass. Still no protection. 49ers at the 6.

Bengals drive: Now it’s the Bengals that are making mistakes on offense and they are unable to overcome them. The 49ers have their best field position of the game at the 47. Get two first downs and they are in field goal range.

49ers drive cont: Crabtree dropped a third-down pass and he had running room. They could have been a 30-yard play. The 49ers are depending on players today: Crabtree, Bruce Miller and Shawntae Spencer that haven’t played much and it shows. It seems like they have no idea what to do offensively.

First half analysis: The 49ers are doing exactly what I thought they should do, and that’s get into a three receiver set and spread out the Bengals defense. It didn’t work; the 49ers didn’t get one snap in Bengals territory. Most of this has to do with the offensive line. They had four penalties in the first half, with three on Chilo Rachal. How long are they going to stick with Rachal? He’s just not consistent. Also on at least four of Frank Gore’s runs, the Bengals were on the 49ers side of the scrimmage. Alex Smith was also inconsistent. I don’t how healthy Goodwin is after coming off a right leg injury. He’s been tossed around since then.

49ers drive cont: Vernon Davis is back. 49ers punt

49ers drive: Two-minute warning. Watching the replace of the quarterback run by Smith, it’s amazing he did not get concussed when he got blasted by Nate Clements. The 49ers are driving and I like that they are going three receivers and spreading out the defense. Gore is finding some running yards out of that formation.

49ers drive: Davis hurts right knee and Walker replaces him.

Bengals drive: Dalton looking very much like a rookie quarterback by latching on to wide receivers. Another three and out after a Brooks sack.

49ers drive cont: On third down, Smith took more than three seconds to get a late breaking amount to open and Smith was sacked because of a stunt on the left side. Iupati was slow to pick up the twist.

49ers drive: Johnathan Goodwin is down, looking at his right leg; Adam Snyder ready to come in. Too bad, because that means Snyder can’t replace Rachal who missed a block and had a holding call on the drive. The 49ers have to make a move there. Goodwin walking off slowly.

Bengals Drive: 49ers force a punt after Rogers jumped a route on Caldwell, nice play. Rogers got lucky earlier, he was beaten by Green on a long pass and Dalton missed him. Both of these quarterbacks are playing poorly.

49ers Drive cont: Adam Snyder was in on that drive for Rachal. Snyder played in two series last week. The 49ers go three and out. Maybe the 49ers don’t play well on the road, because Smith doesn’t play well on the road. He threw high on third down to Morgan. The 49ers did go with three receivers on a non-third down and got a 5-yard pass to Davis.

49ers Drive: 49ers call time out. Vernon Davis complained about not getting the ball. He’s been targeted twice, and then he dropped a long pass down the right sideline. Davis might be putting too much pressure on himself. Nate Clements struggled last week against Denver. Why aren’t the 49ers targeting him?

Bengals Drive: They go three and out, rushed only three on third down.

First quarter analysis: More of the same for the 49ers in this game. It’s as if the Dallas game never ended. The team couldn’t stop the Bengals on their opening drive with Dalton hitting off of quick qb drops. The offensive line struggled. Joe Staley went off sides, Chilo Rachal whiffed on a pass set, and Smith has been sacked once already. The difference is a 14-yard shank of a punt by Andy Lee.

49ers Drive: After a three and out, Alex Smith was flushed out of the pocket after Chilo Rachal whiffed and Smith threw the low. Two bad passes by Smith on the day. He didn’t have any in the first half last week.

49ers Drive: It looked like the 49ers were trying to set up a screen, but Frank Gore couldn’t disengage from a defender. The 49ers on three of their four plays went with fullback Bruce Miller in the game. If that’s an indication, Miller could get a lot of action in this game. Donte Whitner is going to the locker room.

Bengals 3-0: Bengals go 77 yards on their first drive to kick a field goal. Andy Dalton hit his back foot and found an open receiver on five of his six passes. He only faced one third down on the entire drive and that was third and goal. Shawntae Spencer came in as the third cornerback on third down. He knocked away the pass in the end on his first play. Dalton found most of his yards up the middle and along the right hash because Donte Whitner was playing up near the line of scrimmage. Despite the fact, Dashon Goldson started, the 49ers had way too many spaces open in the secondary. It looked they were playing mainly zone.

49ers win the toss and defer to the second half. Marvin Lewis just hit the smelling salts, interesting for a coach.